Described by one reviewer as a sophisti-pop album, the tracks are a mix of pop, jazz and Latin music, showcasing the hit single "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)".

At the time of their meeting, Jackson was working to finish the soundtrack of Mike's Murder, and he told Kershenbaum he was weary of the artificiality of much modern music, recorded piecewise in dead acoustic isolation.

Agreeing with him, Kershenbaum expressed a desire to move Jackson into the modern digital age, embracing the recent debut of the compact disc.

Most of the basic tracks were captured with the full band performing simultaneously, but for some songs the piano or the horn section was recorded separately, to get a cleaner mix.

Kershenbaum said that he and Jackson had intended to finish the project faster, but getting the digital gear together took extra time, and a total of five weeks for the album was "a step in the right direction" after earlier excesses.

[1] In a nod to its jazz standards influence, the front and rear cover art imitated that of the 1957 saxophone album Sonny Rollins, Vol.

Vocalist Elaine Caswell accompanied Jackson for this European leg, but the tour continued without her in the US, and Canada, starting in mid-May and running for six weeks.

[5] Canadian journalist Ethlie Ann Vare caught the show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, reporting that Jackson was "in an impish mood" on stage, refusing to play his older hits to satisfy repeated requests from some of the 6,000 attendees, and instead delivering an impromptu rendition of the pop classic "As Time Goes By" while the band watched.

The musicians obtained Latin percussion sounds the same way they did live on stage, with Gary Burke emulating timbales on his normal drum kit, augmented by Ed Roynesdal on güiro and Tony Aiello on claves.

Stereo Review described "Loisaida" as "a mournful theme for sax and trumpet, which plumb the deepest lamplit sorrows while Jackson's piano chords flicker above like a starry night.

"[12] Other styles on the album include post-disco on "You Can't Get What You Want",[13] "Go For It"'s Motown-flavoured production,[14] and the 1960s pop sound of "Happy Ending", modernised for the 1980s with Elaine Caswell singing the lyric "It's '84 now.

Munn said that Jackson joined artists such as Simply Red, Sade and Everything but the Girl in releasing "jazz-soul"–flavoured pop songs in the wake of the Style Council's influential hit single "Long Hot Summer".

[16] The compact disc was delayed until October; it carried the SPARS code "DDD" signifying an album that had been recorded, mixed and mastered digitally, without an intermediate analogue conversion.

Shewey praised Jackson's hit song, "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)", as "a bracing, sophisticated tune that successfully incorporates pop lyricism, a tight funk band and jazz compositional structures".

The instrumental tracks were praised for their arrangements, observing that some Latin jazz elements were carried forward from Jackson's 1982 album Night and Day.

[12] In a negative review, audiophile magazine The Absolute Sound called the album a sonic "disappointment" despite Jackson's flair for "acute lyrics and classy, dynamic arrangements."

The writer focussed on the "failure" of Kershenbaum and Jackson in their quest to use minimal microphone techniques to highlight the natural acoustic space.